The GOP fear-fest in South Carolina

The Republican field took turns trying to out-scare each other and the American people Thursday and tap into a GOP primary electorate whose angers, fears and anxieties have already upended the presidential campaign.

“I will gladly accept the mantle of anger,” Donald Trump declared.

But his opponents are going to make him fight for it.

Over and over, they spoke about threats to the economy, to the homeland, and to the American way of life.

“The simple fact is that the world has been torn asunder,” Jeb Bush said.

“They are radicalizing people in the United States,” Marco Rubio warned. “They are conducting attacks around the world.”

Ben Carson raised the specter of nuclear attacks setting off an electromagnetic pulse. “They explode the bomb, we have an electromagnetic pulse,” he said. “They hit us with a cyber-attack simultaneously and dirty bombs. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue at that point?”

Ted Cruz fielded the very first question of the night, about the economy. But Cruz pivoted instead to Iran's capture and release this week of a U.S. Navy ship and widely circulated photographs of American sailors on their knees.

“If I am elected president, no service man or service woman will be forced to be on their knees, and any nation that captures our fighting men will feel the full force and fury of the United States of America,” Cruz warned.

But few can out-fear Trump. When the topic returned to his controversial proposal to block all Muslims, including refugees from war-torn Syria and Iraq, from entering the country, Trump forcefully defended himself. “That could be the great Trojan horse,” he said. “It could be people that are going to do great, great destruction.”

The refugee lines, Trump said, were filled with “strong, powerful men” and “very few women, very few children.”

“Our country's a mess and we can't let all these people come into our country and break our borders. We can't do it,” Trump said.

It was the same story in the undercard debate. “Ladies and gentlemen, they're attacking us as we speak,” Rick Santorum declared. “They're attacking us all day every day.”

Two days after President Barack Obama’s State of the Union, Carly Fiorina declared, “The state of our economy is not strong. We have record numbers of men out of work. We have record numbers of women living in poverty. We have young people who no longer believe that the American dream applies to them.”

Chris Christie complained about the “fantasyland” that Obama had presented Tuesday. “I watched story time with Barack Obama. And I've got to tell you, it sounded like everything in the world was going amazing, you know?” Christie said.

Perhaps, the only break came from John Kasich. “I’ve heard a lot of hot rhetoric here tonight,” Kasich said toward the end of the debate, promising his leadership would instead “heal America.”

But the Ohio governor was a distinct outlier, and Trump had the last word.

“I stood yesterday with 75 construction workers. They’re tough. They’re strong. They’re great people. Half of them had tears pouring down their face," Trump said. "They were watching the humiliation of our young ten sailors, sitting on the floor, with their knees in a begging position, their hands up. And Iranian wise guys having guns to their heads. It was a terrible sight. A terrible sight.”

Trump did finish on a positive note. Make him president, he said, and “we will win on everything we do. Thank you.”